HOME PAGE Oldswinford C. E. Primary School
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In medieval times Swinford [then spelt Swynford] was an extensive manor bordering the extensive manor of Swinford Regis [Kingswinford] Swinford is mentioned in a Saxon charter of 950 AD [spelt Suineforde]. It is also mentioned in William the Conqueror's Doomsday Survey when the manor was in the possession of William Fitz Ansculf a powerful Norman Lord who resided in his hilltop castle at Dudley. 'Old' was added to Swynford to distinguish it from the adjacent Swinford Regis. The Manor of Old Swinford changed hands many times during the Middle Ages. In 1482 the manor, then held by the Dean and Canons of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, was granted the right to hold a weekly market with two fairs each year by Henry VII. In 1486 the charter was renewed by Edward IV to the of Earl of Ormond , who then held the manor, as a reward for his services in the Wars of the Roses. In 1564 the Lyttelton family moved to the superior manor of Old Swinford following the destruction of their Frankley home during the Civil War. During the times of the Stuarts the Lyttelton's lost their wealth through involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. The Foleys, whose wealth was based on the expanding iron industry, took control of Old Swinford Manor and brought with them their substantial family fortune. In 1666 Thomas Foley founded a charity school for boys at Old Swinford. He set aside the majority of the parish of Pedmore to form part of the endowment of his Old Swinford Hospital School. Mentioned in the 1255 Worcestershire assize roll, in the Manor of Old Swinford, lay a township called Sturbrug {Stourbridge}. Stourbridge's first recorded 'school' was founded in 1548, Lower High Street by the stipendiary priest at the Chantry of the Holy Trinity. The school's Chantry was suppressed at the command of Henry VIII but was later continued and granted a charter by Edward VI [later to become the King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys, Stourbridge - today the site of King Edward's 6th Form College] Old Swinford Church Schools [originally housing a Boys, a Girls and a mixed Infants School] was opened in the Spring of 1860. |